The Boys of Fall Spring Up ~ 18 May 2007

Two of my picks from the Arizona Fall League last year have proved me right. First, rookie phenom, Mark Reynolds made his major league debut with the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 16th. As mentioned in the last year’s tout of his talents, Reynolds had the liability of being behind too many good players on the Diamondbacks Roster When backup outfielder Scott Hairston and infielder Chad Tracy fell victim of injuries and with slumping infielders Drew and Jackson and an equally weak hitting Carlos Quentin, the position-versatile Reynolds received a call to the show. Scouting reports indicate he can do it all.

Tuesday night he went to sleep in Mobile, Alabama after yet another great game at the AA level. Wednesday evening he went 2 for 4 against the Rockies with a single, double and two RBI’s. After hitting three long, loud deep outfield outs in his first two games, the Rockies intentionally walked Reynolds in game two, rather than take a chance with his crisp hitting. Against the Pirates in his third game he slammed an RBI triple and perfectly executed a sacrifice. Then in the fourth game as the D-Backs mounted a come back against a huge deficit, Reynods hit his first major league home run and added three more hits. After only three games, Reynolds has five RBI’s, two walks and an average of .429. Defensively, he’s been stellar. The ferocity with which he has fielded his position should cause some anxiety for his injured team mates. Reynolds is good - very good.

While part of Jupiter in Sag generation natally, Jupiter at the time of his call up stood more or less in between Reynolds’ natal Jupiter, Uranus, South Node and Neptune. These patterns though stood true for everyone of roughly Reynolds’ age. The trigger came from Mars in the first degree of Aries, trine his natal Jupiter, sextile Chiron and quincunx Mercury. Given Venus in Cancer sextile natal Venus in Virgo within just a few minutes, and natal Venus encouraging Mercury also in Virgo to keep up, Reynolds jumped over many of the players nearer the parent club in the AAA affiliate in Tucson.

A promotion well deserved, Reynolds will be hard to send back to the minors once his team mates heal. By season’s end, with Saturn coming to Mercury, his hard work should pay off with a regular spot.

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Also one of my Fall League favs, Mike Schultz blipped major league radar for a single game on April 20th (his actual time of debut is approximate). Schultz made his first appearance with the generational prompt of Jupiter directly upon Neptune. His debut was but an inning long, in which he showed what it takes to stick around. With a series of roster shifts and a lack of supporting transit activity, the show was short lived in this preview incarnation. However, later in the year as Mars in Gemini lights up his chart and Saturn approaches his early Virgo planets, he should be back.

Schultz could even make it sooner. When Mars takes on Taurus in July at degrees corresponding with his planets in Scorpio and given continued weak pitching performances by Brandon Medders, he’s likely to return than later. If starter Doug Davis does not improve, Edgar Gonzalez might secure his starting spot, creating an opening in the D’Back’s bull pen that Schultz could easily fill.

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Perhaps the best baseball success story of the year comes from the Toronto Blue Jay’s rookie pitcher, Jesse Litsch. On his father’s 57th birthday, Litsch received the ball to start against the Baltimore Orioles in lieu of injured Roy Halladay. Start he did... and he almost finished his first game. When he walked Miguel Tejada with his 99th pitch of the night, manager John Gibbons elected to remove his rookie with one out to go for a complete game - a game Litsch won 2 - 1.

Five years ago Litsch served as a bat boy for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays fantasizing about someday being a major leaguer himself. Litsch’s horoscope had an amazing set of patterns that chimed his bell at an astrologically perfect time.

Astrologers often tell clients enduring the shock and awe of a Uranus conjunction that anything can happen. Yep, like being unexpected called to the big leagues. Oh, and add to that Uranus square his natal Uranus. You can bet all the players in the minors with Uranus and Neptune in Sag, of which there are many, all hope to hear the ding of an airliner indicated their arrival in a major league city, too. Don’t forget Jupiter. Transiting Jupiter topped off this pattern with a direct conjunction to his natal Uranus, marking the perseverance of the innocent fool against impossible odds. In hard aspect to the Sun, Jupiter perfectly cast the shadow of the fool with the Sun at his back.

Mercury in Gemini formed a trine to natal Jupiter and sensual, touchy-feely Venus stood opposite the intuitive renderings of Neptune. Nothing like a good set of sensors to keep the grip on the ball perfect and avert the adrenalin surges of the Moon having just passed over his Venus-Mars conjunction.

Litsch immediately etched himself into the hearts of Blue Jay fans. He gets Saturn, too. Soon Saturn in Leo trines this late Aries collection. His sex appeal rises, his professional stock soars and the value of his name on a baseball explodes in value.

This is one of those great success stories that warms up any baseball fan and shows astrologers how to locate patterns of and recreate a belief in phenomenal breakthroughs.

The Sun had just passed over Litsch’s North Node. You pay dues, you get rewards. The job of a bat boy seems to be a fair tithe of time, energy and servitude.